'What shall we say then?'
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Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence [covetousness]. For without the law sin was dead. (Romans 7:7,8)
Adam and Eve were without law except for the one prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their nakedness was shameful, and in God’s time they would have been clothed (as is true of babies to this day). As they had grown in God they would have been given the knowledge of good and evil as soon as it was profitable for them.
It is a fact of the Christian redemption that when we first are born again we are to a certain extent ignorant of the good and evil in our personality. It is only after we have reached a certain level in Christ that our "eyes are opened" and we begin to see, area by area, the presence of sin in our personality and behavior.
Each time the Holy Spirit enables us to discern an unholy, unrighteous area in our personality He has ready the appropriate righteousness with which to cover our nakedness (Revelation 3:18).
God does not desire that we be foolish, ignorant, or innocent concerning righteousness. We have been commanded to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). In malice we are to be infants but in our understanding we are to be mature (I Corinthians 14:20).
Adam and Eve did not have a sinful nature dwelling in their flesh as we do. There was no law of sin inhabiting their bodies. They were not being driven by the spirit of their age or by their own inborn or acquired tendencies to lust, to murder, to lie, to amass wealth, to worship idols, to slander, to criticize, to disbelieve God, to talk filthy language.
The kind of life the tame and wild animals were leading did not guide Adam and Eve into sin. The created heavens and earth were declaring to them the Glory of God. Also, the Presence of the Lord God was in the garden with them so they could model their behavior after Him.
Everything about them and available to them was working to enable them to grow up as righteous and holy children of the Highest. There was no reason, other than the counsel of the serpent plus their own lack of experience in godliness and in dealing with temptation, why they should have broken God’s one commandment.
If they had waited until God had given them His Divine Nature they would have been brought successfully into the ability to discern good and evil.
Exalting their self-will over God’s will always opens the door for uncleanness and lawlessness to enter human beings.
We understand that the first sin was the sin of self-will rather than fornication or lying or stealing. The self-will of Adam and Eve opened the door for the sins of the flesh to enter and bind mankind to their compulsions.
Adam and Eve lost their opportunity to eat of the tree of life.
The Lord God said:
. . . Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (Genesis 3:22)
God was not pleased with the condition of Adam and Eve at this time and He did not want them partaking of the tree of life and living forever in their state of alienation from their Creator. Therefore the Lord posted a guard to keep His children away from the tree of life.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)
As we think about the moral purity of their environment, and the lack of sinful impulses in their nature, the reason for the disobedient actions of Adam and Eve seems to be clear. The wicked rebellion in the heavenlies had brought the personalities involved there to a high level of subtlety and skill in creating and practicing every evil work. The counsel of the serpent to Eve was adapted perfectly to the purpose of leading her into discontent and rebellion against the Lord God.
Apart from that evil suggestion Eve would have been content to follow her husband as he followed the Lord. But, child that she was, she was led easily into disobedience just as little boys and girls are lured into the automobile of a stranger by the promise of some candy.
Adam, who was anxious to please his wife just as men are to this day (I Corinthians 7:33), joined with her in rebellion against God’s commandment. By their actions the first husband and wife brought all their descendants under bondage to Satan, to sin, to death.
The damage done to the earth and its inhabitants as the result of the original sin of Adam and Eve is so vast in scope, so ugly, so painful, that the human mind cannot grasp it.
All the wars, all the acts of violence of people against other people, all the grief of relatives and friends who have seen their loved ones wasted by sickness or mangled in accidents, all the agony of mental and physical sickness, all the human, animal, and mineral resources wrecked by the lusts of men driven by the unquenchable thirst for riches, all the madness, perversion, perversity of word and action, and wild restlessness of spirit that keep the human race in an uproar to this day, every last treacherous, obscene, murderous behavior of mankind is the direct result of the unwillingness or inability of Adam and Eve to obey God.
Human history portrays for all time, to the earth and to the heavenlies, that God is righteous, that life lived apart from Him is a disaster, and that absolute obedience to His Spirit and law is the only way in which His creatures can attain love, joy, peace, and every other desirable goal.
Human beings stagger forward under the crushing burden of the chains of spiritual oppression that are far, far heavier and more grievous than those imposed by any human master.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28-32)
The poison of sin affects each person born into the world.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10)
Again:
For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God; (Romans 3:23)
The act of disobedience of Adam and Eve brought every one of their descendants under bondage to death.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)
One of the worst results of the original sin is that we humans now have a strong tendency toward sin. The bodies of Adam and Eve were constructed from chemicals found in the earth and therefore were neither sinful nor righteous. Their bodies were houses for their soul and spirit and were neutral as far as any tendency toward sin or righteousness is concerned.
Unfortunately such neutrality is not the case with our bodies. The bondage of which God warned Cain has come to pass: the desire of man is to sin and sin rules over him (see Genesis 4:7).
Because of the thousands of years of sin that have preceded our lives on the earth, we now have in us powerful urges toward lust, murder, covetousness, lying, and occult practices.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (Romans 7:18-20)
The poison of sin has corrupted all that is in the world. Not only have we been born into bondage to sin because of the rebellion in Eden, but we are under the power of death as well. Sin, when it matures, brings forth death.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: . . . . (Romans 8:13)
The heavy hand of sin and death grips every man, woman, boy, and girl born into the world. The entire creation of God has been affected by the original disobedience.
It was impossible for Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of life after having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because sin had been committed by them and no atonement was available to take care of their sin.
A sinner cannot come to the tree of life and receive eternal life until an atonement has been made for him, until he first has been washed in the blood of God’s Lamb. First comes the washing in the blood, and after that the eating of Christ, who is the Tree of Life.
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